I teach an 8th grade faith formation class. We were talking about Pentecost being the birth of the Church. One of the students asked who started the Jewish faith and why Jesus who was a Jew started the Catholic church. Can you help me explain this to the students. Thank you.

Answer by David Gregson on 07-23-2014:

God started the Jewish faith by revealing Himself to Abraham and making a covenant with him. Abraham's descendants, the Twelve Tribes of Israel, were to prepare themselves for the coming of Christ by obeying God's Law. When Christ came, He founded the Catholic Church, which was supposed to be the flower, of which Israel was the seed. But the majority of the Jews didn't accept Christ, and so the Church became mostly Gentile.